Author Archives: Luka Karaman

(Najkraci vic na svijetu) the shortest joke in the world

Nationality: Croatian, American
Age: 49
Occupation: water pol referee
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: 4/19/2017
Primary Language: Croatian
Language: English

TK is my dad and he likes jokes. It was a part of his culture growing up and he always likes to have a nice laugh.

 

Every summer we my family and I would go to Iž for our vacation. Iž is an island in Croatia. Usually to pass time in the car on our way there we play games, tell jokes and on one of those rides he told us this one.

 

TK: do you want to hear the shortest joke in the world?

 

Me: Yes

 

TK: do you want to hear another one?

 

He heard this joke from his friend back when he was in high school. The genre of jokes he enjoys is simple, short and stupid just like this one above. For those exact reasons these kind oh jokes are funny. A joke like this one is meant to bring giggles and not full on laughter. They are usually used to pass time, in between classes, on road trips and etc.

Welcome to Jamaica have a nice day!

Nationality: Croatian
Age: 49
Occupation: water polo referee
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: 4/19/2017
Primary Language: Croatian
Language: English

TK is my dad and he likes jokes. It was a part of his culture growing up and he always likes to have a nice laugh. He told my brother, uncle and me this joke this winter when we went to Montego Bay for a family vacation. It was a weird joke but it was funny.

 

“A white man walks into the airport bathroom. He goes to the closest urinal and starts to pee. Once he starts a black man comes in and chooses the urinal right next to the other guy. The white guy knowing the stereotypes, out of curiosity looks over the urinal to see the black guy’s penis:

 

White guy: “hey you have a tattoo saying Wendy on your penis too!!”

 

The black guy shakes his penis a bit and replies:

 

“It doesn’t say Wendy it says Welcome to Jamaica Have a Nice Day.””

 

The joke isn’t offensive and it touches the subject of male genitals. It uses the stereotype that black people have larger penises than white people. Genitals itself among teenagers is a funny subject, and if mentioned in a joke and said in a funny way makes it even funnier

Three friends at a cemetery

Nationality: American
Age: 18
Occupation: student
Residence: Dubrovnik, Croatia
Performance Date: 4/23/2017
Primary Language: English
Language: Croatian

my informant MK is my brother and he told me this story this past summer while exchanging horror stories one night. He heard this story from his friends at school. MK is 18 and a senior I high school. He was born in the States but has been living in Croatia for the past 15 years

 

“There were three friends and one day like every other they were competing with each other who among them was the bravest and more manly. In order to settle this discussion once and for all, one of them suggested that if they are really fearless tonight as the clock strikes midnight they will dig out a grave and hammer a nail into it. All three of them were scared at first, but after one of them said that he is a the bravest one and he will do it and since the other two didn’t want to be seen as cowards they said they were going to do it as well. That same night they dig out a grave and when the clock hit twelve the first one went down and hammered the first nail. When he came out the second one went down and hammers his nail. After the second friend climbed out the third one went down to hammer his nail. He hits once, twice and after the third time it was nailed in. As he was going back up something pulled him back in and the two friends that were watching ran back home without even looking back. Tomorrow morning not hearing from the third friend they went back to the graveyard looking for him. When they came to the spot they left him, they found him dead. While he was hammering the nail in the coffin he got his jacket sleeve to, so when he tried to go back up that was what pulled him back. Thinking it was a dead man that pulled him he got a heart attack and died.”

 

I heard a slightly different version of this story from my friends back in elementary school. I thing that the story has a message (children not to mess around late at night especially at cemeteries), but it is used more for entertainment around kids to scare each other, rather than educational purposes.

Otok Daksa (Daksa island)

Nationality: Croatian
Age: 68
Occupation: retired
Residence: Dubrovnik, Croatia
Performance Date: 4/17/2017
Primary Language: Croatian

NK is my grandmother who was born and raised in Dubrovnik, Croatia. Being a local she knows a lot about the city and its folklore. She first told me this story in elementary school for a project on islands near Dubrovnik.

“Daksa is a small island near Dubrovnik. For years after World War 2 access to this island was forbidden. The island is haunted and even the owners of the island don’t live on it and have tried to sell it couple of times now. The island is haunted because there were 48 people accused of being Nazi sympathizers and were brutally executed in 1944. Locals say it’s haunted by their ghosts looking for justice.”

 

What’s the real story behind it?

 

“Yugoslav partisans celebrated their victory over the Nazis by rounding up anyone they thought corroborated with the enemy, including the village priest and mayor,

The ‘guilty’ were then rowed out to the island where they were gunned down in cold blood and left unburied. The locals were told that the same fate awaited them if they intervened, so the corpses remained uncovered for decades and it wasn’t until recent years that they were finally laid to rest. So the legend has it that spirits of the dead men haunt the island, demanding justice against those responsible.”

 

The ghost story obviously has some true facts. I’m guessing that because of the tragedy that occurred on the island, the locals had to cope with it some way and said the island was haunted.

Knoxville Tennessee skunk ape

Nationality: American
Age: 22
Occupation: student
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: 17/4/2017
Primary Language: English

CML is my tutor at USC. She is 22 and a fourth year student at USC. She lived in Knoxville for 15 years. She learned about local culture at school learned urban legends from family and friends that were commonly spoken about. CML told me this piece of folklore during one of our tutoring session.

 

“Have you ever heard of the Skunk ape?”

 

No what’s that?

 

“It’s like a yeti, little smaller than a normal Bigfoot, wonders the hills of eastern Tennessee, has a horrible smell. It comes from the Appalachian mountain and it eats people’s chickens. Sort of a silly thing, like people don’t take it seriously, I imagine it like a little thing, a nasty little skunk ape. No sympathy by people if a possum eat your chicken, but if a skunk ape eat them…oh shit”

 

There is not too much to a meaning to it but you want sympathy and try to make the story more dramatic and get attention rather than just having your chicken eaten by a common possum (because that would be a boring and uninteresting story)

 

For more information on the skunk-ape, see http://www.newanimal.org/skunkape.htm